The present invention generally relates to diagnostic systems, and more particularly to an improved method and system for diagnosing and controlling the recording of faults and/or failures in an electronic component during automated assembly.
Many electrical circuits, particularly circuits utilized in safety or protection systems, generally employ a self-diagnostic arrangement which tests for faults in the circuit, and subsequently, records any detected faults. Further, warning devices are typically actuated in response to a recorded fault so that appropriate servicing of the electrical circuit can be performed in a timely manner.
However, such self-testing/recording arrangements typically become problematic during manufacture or assembly of the main system. Specifically, the circuits tend to comprise different subcomponents which are individually installed during assembly of the overall system. As each subcomponent is mounted, the circuit is momentarily activated, or "powered up", to verify correct installation of the subcomponent. When the system is only partially assembled, the self-testing circuit will inherently diagnose a fault due to the incomplete circuit, and record the detection of the fault into a memory.
Therefore, known manufacturing processes must provide an external control input which would inhibit the self-testing circuit from detecting and/or recording any faults during assembling, or provide an additional manufacturing step of purging or erasing the fault recording memory after the circuit is completely assembled. Neither of those solutions are particularly satisfactory because of the added complexity and/or cost to the manufacturing process.